ONCE UPON A TIME: Finale Preview — Will Emma Answer Destiny’s Call?

Will Emma embrace her destiny as the saviour of fairytaledom? Executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis weigh in Sunday’s season finale.

Quotables from their interview with TV Guide follow (mild spoilers may follow):

What can you tell us of Emma’s struggle to really believe in the finale?
Adam Horowitz: The stakes have never been higher for what she’s dealing with, which is Henry. She’s from this world, and what she’s being asked to believe by Henry, it’s a pretty monumental leap for anyone to make.
Edward Kitsis: And that was something that we really wanted to do, which was really earn her journey. Such as, the first time she is told this information, like anyone, she thinks it’s crazy. What we love is that when August (Eion Bailey) is yelling at her, “Why won’t you believe?” we know he was not only speaking for himself, but for the audience. For us, it is important that the day that Emma does believe, we feel like we’ve earned it, as opposed to, it’s Episode 2 and now she believes and she is fighting sea monsters.

Will Henry’s ailment be the catalyst for her to finally believe?Kitsis: What I love is that Henry, basically in a lot of ways, is the most heroic because he sacrificed his life to get her to embrace her destiny. We will see if it was done in vain, but we’ve tried everything else. We tried to show her a wooden leg, we’ve tried to show her time moving, we’ve tried to show her all these things and she hasn’t believed. So this was it. This is the last chance.

How will Regina and Emma have to team up in the finale because of Henry? And how will the curse ultimately backfire on her?
Horowitz: Regina has enjoyed an uninterrupted reign of 28 years that has now slowly been getting more and more intensely difficult. In the finale, the challenges she faces to her place in Storybrooke and her power are greater than she has ever faced. But she is a formidable foe, so she’s ready to rise to that challenge.